The coincident index of economic indicators fell for the first time in three months in August, the government said in a preliminary report Friday. The coincident index, which reflects the current state of the economy based on industrial output, retail sales, new job offers ...

Japan needs a double dose of monetary and fiscal stimulus, including further easing by the central bank next month, says Etsuro Honda, one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic advisers. Honda, one of the architects of Abenomics, Abe’s economic policy based on “three arrows,” ...

Business confidence at Japan’s largest manufacturers has sunk to its weakest level since Tokyo launched measures to kick-start the tepid economy more than three years ago, the central bank said in its quarterly sentiment survey Monday. The Bank of Japan’s closely watched tankan report ...

Over the course of the 2016 presidential election, trade has been thrust into the spotlight. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump described the North American Free Trade Agreement as “the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, but certainly ever signed in this country” during ...

Household spending fell for the sixth straight month in August, reflecting weak consumer sentiment, though the unemployment rate remained low at 3.1 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from the previous month, government data showed Friday. Average household spending, a key indicator of private consumption, ...

The Bank of Japan’s decision to target the yield curve and allow consumer prices to overshoot its 2 percent goal are welcome steps in the nation’s long battle to encourage inflation, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has said. Targeting the yield curve will ...

Trade, that lifeblood of the world economy, is growing at its slowest rate in seven years and could falter even more should anti-globalization sentiment encourage governments to throw up more barriers. That’s the verdict from the World Trade Organization, which dramatically slashed its forecast ...

Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Monday he will loosen the central bank’s monetary grip “without hesitation” if conditions make that the sensible thing to do. In a speech in Osaka, Kuroda expressed concern over falling prices as the central bank pursues its ...

Households and companies continue to hold onto cash rather than spending or investing it, highlighting the ongoing challenge to revitalize the economy. Households held ¥920 trillion ($9.1 trillion) of their assets in cash or deposits at the end of the quarter through June, the ...

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called Friday for strong relations with Canada as he wrapped up a three-day visit to the important trading partner. “We have no excuses,” Li told a Canadian-Chinese business council in Montreal. “China and Canada must have win-win cooperation.” Canadian Prime ...

Japan and the European Union plan to discuss key farming products separately from other goods in negotiations on a proposed economic partnership agreement for free trade, sources said Friday. Japan wants tariffs on the five products — rice, wheat, beef and pork, dairy products ...